The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-06-27
Tho Negro,s Future.


The discussion OF the question of the
TO occupy fair share of public attention
There are good reasons for saying that those
who contend that the negro race is dying
out and those who hold that it win become
anlalgamated with the white race are mis-
taken The statistics upon which both
theories are based are taken from the cities,
and the negroes in the cities are but small
part OF the negro population. The death
rate OF negroes in cities is very large, par
tlcularly of negro children, but it should not
be forgotten that the birth rate is also large.
About all the negro women marry, and, as
rule, each has quite a large number of
children A fair percentage of those who
do not marry help considerably to increase
the race, Outside of the cities it is pretty
safe TO say that while the birth rate of the
negroes is larger than that of whites the
death rate is no larger.
An increase in the number of mulattoes
in the cities is noticeable, while in the
country districts the disappearance of the
mulattoes is equally noticeable. When the
fact Is taken into consideration that as the
condition of the negro race improves its self
respect viii increase, it is apparent that the
number of mulattoes even in the cities will
decrease. Instead of the negro race be-
coming lost in the white race, therefore, the
prospect is that it will become more dis
tinctively black. Unless there shall be other
powerful influences to bring about an
amalgamation of the races the line of
separation win become clearer, instead of
more blurred, as the years go by.
But it does not follow that because the
stronger race viii not absorb the weaker
one, the latter will not have a future of
which it will have reason to be proud The
colored race is not going to leave the
South, is not dying out, and is not
being amalgamated with the white race 1t
is slowly but surely advancing to a higher
plane of civilization, and will develop along
side of the white race, though it will be sep
arated from it by a line which neither viii
care TO cross. Even now, although occupy
ing much lower plane from the standpoint
OF intelligence, the negroes are organized
upon the plan of the white people.
They have their social grades, their church
organizations, their secret and benevolent
societies, their prominent men and their
tramps, their rich and poor and their good
and bad people. Whatever there is in the
society of the white people exists among
the colored people on a smaller scale.
Here in the South some very marked
changes have been witnessed within the
last twenty-five years among the negroes,
and changes still more marked will be wit
messed in the next twenty-five. The negro
lawyer, doctor and merchant are
almost unknown now, but they
will be known before another quar-
ter of a century. 1t is probable
that negro professional and business men
win seek business among their own race,
and that race viii furnish it. The negro is
bound to accumulate wealth. and though his
progress in that respect may be slow, yet,
in the course of time, there will be very
fair sprinkling of rich and well-to-do
colored men in every Southern State. They
viii use their money just as the white peo-
pie use theirs; and, therefore, it may be ex-
pected that they will be found in every
profession and in all kinds of business
They are in the South to stay, and to
increase \